Having only just digested the Marc VDS Racing title, in which he played a leading role in the Blancpain Endurance Series, as also the victory during the seventh round of the German VLN competition on the Nürburgring’s Nordschleife, Maxime Martin once again headed off for the United States to compete in the penultimate round of the American Le Mans Series at the Virginia International Raceway. And on this circuit the BMW Z4 GTE entered by the BMW Team RLL of Bobby Rahal promised to be somewhat competitive.

As from Friday everything was looking perfect, with Maxime taking the qualifying session, which resulted in him grabbing his first pole position on the US continent! “The weekend could not have started off on a better footing, the young Brussels based driver wearing the BMW Motorsport colours commented. But we needed to remain realistic, seeing the power handicap of our Z4 GTE was not going to make life easy for us in the race … “

Scheduled this Saturday at the end of the day, the Virginia event started off in a rather frustrating manner for Bill Auberlen, Maxime Martin’s teammate who found himself overcome by the Vipers and the Corvette on the straight. And the BMW was floating between 4th and 5th place in its category. Several moments later Auberlen performed a straight-on that brought him back into 10th spot once he had rejoined the track …and the Z4 found itself last in the GTE class …

“As though that wasn’t enough, we then experienced a problem with … the door during our pit stop, Maxime continued. When I rejoined the track I was two laps down. I re- entered just behind the leader, and immediately overtook him. True to tradition in the United States, neutralisations did the rest, with two interventions from the Safety Car allowing me to climb back up into the same lap as the leading cars … “

At the Restart, some forty minutes from the finish, Martin was still in 10th place … but the festival was about to start. With some impressive overtaking and strong driving, Maxime managed to offer himself the scalp of five competitors and to claim the points of a fifth place as he took the chequered flag. “I overtook one of the Corvette cars in the last lap, and this gives us some interesting points when it comes to the title of vice-champion for the teams, the Belgian driver explained. So we can conclude that for us this race was both positive and negative.”

In two weeks time Petit Le Mans will be in full swing, and even though the Road Atlanta circuit, in Georgia, also boasts a long straight, the official BMW Z4 GTE should be in a position to round off the American season on a high note. On to the next rendezvous…